Dragon Bound (Elder Races)
Dragon Bound (Elder Races) book cover

Dragon Bound (Elder Races)

Mass Market Paperback – May 3, 2011

by
Price
$7.99
Publisher
Berkley
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0425241509
Dimensions
4.22 x 0.89 x 6.82 inches
Weight
5.6 ounces

Description

Praise for Dragon Bound “Black Dagger Brotherhood readers will love Dragon Bound ...I'm hooked!”—J. R. Ward, #1 New York Times bestselling author xa0“I loved this book so much, I didn't want it to end. Smoldering sensuality, fascinating characters and an intriguing world— Dragon Bound kept me glued to the pages. Thea Harrison has a new fan in me!”—Nalini Singh, New York Times bestselling author“Thea Harrison has created a truly original urban fantasy romance....When the shapeshifting dragon locks horns with his very special heroine, sparks fly that any reader will enjoy. Buy yourself an extra-large cappuccino, sit back and enjoy the decadent fun!"—Angela Knight, New York Times bestselling author xa0 “ Dragon Bound is full of tense action, toe-curling love scenes and intriguing characters that will stay with you long after the story is over.xa0All that is wrapped inside a colorful, compelling world with magic so real, the reader can feel it.”—Shannon K. Butcher, national bestselling author xa0 “Sexy and action packed, Dragon Bound features a strong, likable heroine, a white-hot luscious hero and an original and intriguing world that swallowed me whole.xa0This novel held me transfixed from beginning to end!”—Anya Bast, New York Times bestselling author“Every now and then a book comes along that blows your socks off—this is one of those books! To say that former category author Harrison makes a stellar foray into the paranormal genre with this Elder Races series starter is truly an understatement. Utilizing vivid characters, edge-of-your-seat danger and an intriguing alternate reality, Harrison crafts a novel that grabs you from the first sentence and makes you bitterly regret that the book must end. Move this to the top of your must-buy list immediately, you won’t be disappointed!”— RT Book Reviews A debut author at the age of nineteen, Thea Harrison had sixteen romances published under another name before she took a break to collect a couple of graduate degrees and a grown child. She’s back with the Novels of the Elder Races, a paranormal romance series. Thea lives in California with her family. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Pia was blackmailed into committing a crime more suicidal than she could possibly have imagined, and she had no one to blame but herself. Knowing that didn’t make it easier. She couldn’t believe she had been so lacking in good judgment, taste or sensibility. Honestly what had she done? She had taken one look at a pretty face and forgotten everything her mom had taught her about survival. It sucked so bad she might as well put a gun to her head and pull the trigger. Except she didn’t own a gun because she didn’t like them. Besides, pulling the trigger on a gun was pretty final. She had issues with commitment and she was so freaking dead anyway, so why bother. A taxi horn blared. In New York the sound was so common everyone ignored it, but this time it made her jump. She threw a glance over one hunched shoulder. Her life was in ruins. She would be on the run for the rest of her life, all fifteen minutes or so of it, thanks to her own foolish behavior and her shithead ex who had screwed her, then screwed her over so royally she couldn’t get over the knife-like sensation in the pit of her stomach. She stumbled into a narrow trash-strewn street by a Korean restaurant. She uncapped a liter-sized water bottle and chugged half it down, one hand splayed on the cement wall while she watched the sidewalk traffic. Steam from the restaurant kitchen enveloped her in the rich red-pepper and soy scents of gochujang and ganjang sauces, overlaying the garbage rot of a nearby dumpster and the acrid exhaust from the traffic. The people in the street looked much as they always did, driven by internal forces as they charged along the sidewalk and shouted on cell phones. A few mumbled to themselves as they dug through trash cans and looked at the world with lost wary eyes. Everything looked normal. So far so good? After a long nightmarish week, she had just committed the crime. She had stolen from one of the most dangerous creatures on Earth, a creature so frightening that just imagining him was more scariness than she ever wanted to meet in real life. Now she was almost done. A couple more stops to make, one more meeting with the shithead, and then she could scream for oh say a couple of days or so while she figured out where she would run to hide. Holding on to that thought she strode down the street until she came to the Magic District. Located east of the Garment District and north of Koreatown, the New York Magic District was sometimes called the Cauldron. It was comprised of several city blocks that seethed with light and dark energies. The Cauldron flaunted caveat emptor like a prizefighter’s satin cloak. The area was stacked several stories high with kiosks and shops offering Tarot readings, psychic consultations, fetishes and spells, retail and wholesale sellers, imports, those who dealt with fake merchandise and those who sold magic items that were deadly real. Even from the distance of a city block, the area assaulted her senses. She came to a shop located at the border of the district. The storefront was painted sage-green on outside, with the molding at the plate-glass windows and door painted pale yellow. She took a backwards step to look up. The name DIVINUS was spelled in plain brushed-metal lettering over the front window. Years ago her mother had on occasion bought spells from the witch who owned this shop. Her boss Quentin had also mentioned the witch had one of the strongest magical talents he had ever met in a human. She looked in the storefront. Her blurred reflection looked back her, a tired young woman, built rather long and coltish, with tense features and a pale tangled ponytail. She looked past herself into the shadowed interior. In contrast to the noisy none-too-clean surroundings of the city street, the inside of the shop appeared cool and serene. The building seemed to glow with warmth. She recognized protection spells in place. In a display case near the door harmonic energies sparked from an alluring arrangement of crystals, amethyst, peridot, rose quartz, blue topaz and celestite. The crystals took the slanting sunshine and threw brilliant rainbow shards of light onto the ceiling. Her gaze found the single occupant inside, a tall queen-like woman, perhaps Hispanic, with a gaze that connected to hers with a snap of Power. That was when the shouting started. Read more

Features & Highlights

  • THE FIRST NOVEL IN THE
  • NEW YORK TIMES
  • BESTSELLING ELDER RACES SERIES!
  • Half-human and half-wyr, Pia Giovanni spent her life keeping a low profile among the wyrkind and avoiding the continuing conflict between them and their Dark Fae enemies. But after being blackmailed into stealing a coin from the hoard of a dragon, Pia finds herself targeted by one of the most powerful—and passionate—of the Elder races.   As the most feared and respected of the wyrkind, Dragos Cuelebre cannot believe someone had the audacity to steal from him, much less succeed. And when he catches the thief, Dragos spares her life, claiming her as his own to further explore the desire they’ve ignited in each other.   Pia knows she must repay Dragos for her trespass, but refuses to become his slave—although she cannot deny wanting him, body and soul...

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
60%
(2.2K)
★★★★
25%
(896)
★★★
15%
(537)
★★
7%
(251)
★
-7%
(-251)

Most Helpful Reviews

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Riding the Genre Train

There hasn't been a PNR debut that's gotten this much buzz since Larissa Ione first made her debut. Other reviewers who have similar tastes to me even stated it was ground breaking fantasy, right up there with Nalini Singh and J.R. Ward. Both authors--along with many other well known authors--gave Dragon Bound serious high praise. So I immediately bought this book against my better judgment, because you can't ignore praise like that.

After 20 pages, I thought I hadn't read enough of the book to get to the "ground breaking" bits. Then at page 148, I realized this book had nothing special to bring to the table. Harrison's world isn't anything new. The Elder races comprise of the Dark and Light Faye, Elves (who aren't Faye??), and the Wyr. Wyr is just a fancy name for animal shifters of a wide variety--as a treat they do get a bit exotic with Dragons, Thunderbirds, Gryphons, and Harpies. People are quite aware of the supernaturals walking among them, but the history of why is sketchy at best. Harrison's whole world building feels like an after thought. The writings average quality couldn't make up for the lack of world building either. Even the sex scenes were been-there-read-that kind of material.

The humor had me coming back, as it was one of the few things that I loved about this book. The dragon sex jokes really had me rolling. Guessing what Pia's shifter form was another fun plus, until I realized my first guess was right only 50 pages in. From there things went down hill.

Dragos is older then the world itself--he doesn't feel old he just acts like a older then snot bully with primitive mind sets. Pia was hard to enjoy as a main character, the way she was written made her at times hard to follow and deal with on an emotional level. She was raised to be careful and go unnoticed, because of her mysterious Wyr form. Everything she does is almost like she's trying to shout out, "Hey everybody I'm right here!"

In the end I will not be paying anymore attention to author praise, no matter how good the author. This is definitely comfort food for hard core PNR fans who don't mind reading the same story over and over. For PNR readers who are a bit more picky, like me, and have standards step back! The same harem of men featured in the many mate-for-life reads out there didn't scream originality. So, I'm not too confident if the future books will have any deeper world building, or character depth. It just feels like this series is going to rely on riding the genre train to keep it a float.

Sexual Content: Cookie cutter sex scenes and some fun dirty talk.

Rating: 2/5- Average/disappointing, library check-out
22 people found this helpful
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Great action filled story - Dragos just needed some more character development

I wish I could say I loved this book as much as other reviewers. Taken as an action oriented paranormal romance, it was great. The plot moved at a nice pace, and I never felt bored with the story. The world was interesting. The characterization is where this story lost me. It's an odd personal quirk of mine that I need likeable characters in my fiction. I need to care about my protagonist, their romance options, and even my antagonists if I'm going to enjoy a story.

And I DID love the main character. Pia is strong, smart, and capable. She's also balanced in a way man urban fantasy chics are not - she doesn't mouth off without cause, or "shoot first ask questions later." She will give you the harsher side of her wit if you piss her off. She's honorable - the kind of girl that would steal from a dragon, but leave an apology note and a replacement item as recompense. I loved her.

What I did not love was Dragos. I had absolutely no sense of him - who he was, what his motivations were. He was about as real to me as card board with a "Alpha Male" label tacked on. He's the kind of guy that yells, rages, and bruises you before he makes sweet sweet love to you. Hot right? Ya, not so much. I like a good possessive alpha male as much as any girl that enjoys romance. But I like to feel that under all that bluster is a real man, with feelings, and reasons for being the way he is. Reasons I can understand, and even sympathize with. The only thing I thing I was given to help me understand Dragos is, he's old. Yup, massively old - like before the dawn of time old. Now I know that'd make a guy a little ... errr... different than the norm, and I really tried to understand him from that perspective, but I just couldn't. He's an enigma to me, and didn't think he deserved Pia.

Dragon Bound, was fun read. The action flowed nicely from start to finish. I liked the world, the main character, and even the side characters. I just did not like Dragos and that threw off the whole romance plotline for me. If you are the type of reader that enjoys a good action, and steamy romance, but places less emphasis on being able to empthize with your progonists, I am confident you'll love this book.
16 people found this helpful
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Sorry I believed all the hype. Not horrible, just not great either.

I agree completely with what the 2 and 3 star reviewers point out as basic flaws with this story.
I am halfway through the book now and the last 75 pages or so, since they got back to his penthouse have been very skim-worthy. And what is up with her calling him "big guy" and his second in command "Slick"? I'm sorry, those nicknames grate on my nerves EVERY time she uses them [which sad to say with "big guy" is every other page]. And can't STAND when a male lead calls his girlfriend person "lover". I have just NEVER in real life heard a man use that term in a normal everyday conversation. Ever. That or "make love" Not. Ever.
Anyhoo, I'm having a hard time drumming up the interest to finish the book that completely engrossed me the first third of the way through and which I bought because of all the glowing raving reviews I found on several blogs I follow. Can't say I'll take their MUST READ declarations with more than a grain of salt from now on.

** So I did indeed slog through the rest and finish the book. All I can say is ugh. The first 1/3 is certainly the best part--the rest after they get back to the city didn't even feel like the same characters to me. I liked the female *considerably* less once we got the time to know her better.

One reviewer mentioned they never said I Love You--and frankly with the whole book taking place in roughly one week's time--I'm GLAD they didn't. The rest of their "great bond" [please note the sarcasm] was hard enough to swallow in such a short time without them throwing out the 'L' word when there'd been no time for even much in the way of trust to have developed. Bleck. I won't be reading any others in this series.
12 people found this helpful
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No-- Just, No, This Book Wasn't All That and a Bag of Chips-- Audio Review

I don't know what I expected but I should have realized that this was not to my taste when I heard that Thea Harrison wrote Harlequin Presents Romance Novels as Amanda Carpenter. It's not that I think that someone who writes HPs cannot write anything else or that HPs are particularly foul, but they are just not to my taste. It also made me cranky.

This book started off kind of fun with the heroine dealing with the fact that her ex had set her up to steal from a dragon's hoard putting her in mortal danger from a creature who had been born with the Universe itself and endowed with great power. However about half way through I was glumly thinking that this book should have been named "The Thief and the Old Bad Tempered Greek Bajillionaire" in keeping with Harlequin title conventions.

The fabulous dragon was acting like a foreign captain of industry not an eldritch creature of power. And the female main character could have been a PA that his lust had happened to light on. He's a total jerk because I guess that's what dragons are like. The heroine keeps ending up in unintentional situations that he would misread and cause him to lose his temper-- I guess because that's what HP heroines are like. Dragos blows up, heroine cries, Dragos does or says something that makes her feel all squishy inside.

I did think it kind of sniggerngly funny that his dragon form was described as about the size of a private jet. A captain of industry who could be his own Lear jet, how handy.

Being captured by goblins was no different from being captured by villainous thugs. The powerful villain opposing Dragos was essentially a Russian oligarch/mobster-- Heck, he's even named Yuri. He's into mountain top removal and other noneco-friendly practices. And we know that the heroine is pure of heart because she's a vegetarian. And not just any vegetarian, she's a vegan-- with a few small lapses. This does cause some difficulties when they are on the run from some villains in the wilderness and it's time to eat.

As for the sex scenes, I fast forwarded through them after the first one, not because I don't enjoy a hot encounter between characters but because I was bored. Nothing to get the old juices flowing like being manhandled (dragonhandled?) and thrown around before sex. There was also way too much time spent hanging around the Weir while Dragos shows how thought he is by making sure she has her favorite shampoo and condition and she shows how worthy she is by feeding the homeless-- not personally, of course, and with Dragos' funds.

This was an audio book. It ran a smidge less than 13 hours. It was read by Sophie Eastlake, who I haven't run into before. She's competent but that's about it. That name has to be pseudonym.

This probably isn't a bad book for people who share the fantasy, but if you aren't into 6 foot 8 dragon shifters (with EVERYTHING in proportion, if-you-know-what-I-mean-and-I-think-you-do) who are older than dirt (literally) worked into a typical Harlequin Presents plot, then look elsewhere.
11 people found this helpful
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Dragos our dragon who is as old as the Earth is pretty ticked off someone found and then took something from ...

Dragon Bound is set in New York City where our protagonist Pia gets herself blackmailed into stealing from a dragons hoard. She can get into and out of the hoard but she knows she is going to get caught sooner or later. Dragos our dragon who is as old as the Earth is pretty ticked off someone found and then took something from his hoard. Dragos sets out to hunt his thief down and find out how someone could be stupid enough to steal from him.

Dragon Bound has some entertaining qualities, quite a bit of action and maybe a little too much drama. Set in an alternate Earth there did not need to be a ton of time spent on world building which normally frees things up for more character building; I think the character building fell a little flat. Pia is only about 25 and supposedly was taught from birth to run, hide, and never ever tell anyone who and what she was because her life depended on it; her mother never explained why that was or exactly what Pia was. Pia comes off as really naïve for someone whose had a lifetime of paranoia instilled in her. She also seems to give up her freedom really easily. Dragos is made out to be the world’s biggest apex predator but he’s a little too over the top and with his style of interaction with everyone would see him at constant war since he’s a do what I say or else kind of guy. One of the things I find annoying in a book dealing with beings that are centuries or even millennia old is they shouldn’t act like young idiots that have not seen a lot of life yet. In Dragons Bound I don’t get a since of age, just guys riding to much of a testosterone high. Our characters lacked the depth they really needed to come alive.

Dragon Bound is a book where the good guys and the bad guys do not have a lot difference between them, our protagonist Pia just picks the one that catches her first and has lots of sex with him and decides he’s probably what she wants, maybe. The entire story takes place in what is supposed to be one week, so this turns things into an insta love sort of story with more action and survival than is possible or likely to happen in a week; all in between sex and lunches. Things would have been more palatable if the time line was longer. While I did finish the book I don’t think I’ll continue on with this series.
4 people found this helpful
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Entertaining and enjoyable. The best parts were the hero's personality, intense focus for his love, and the relationship.

STORY BRIEF:
The Wyrkind include dragons, gryphons, and other shape shifters. Dragos is a huge dragon who was created before humans existed. He's ruler of the Wyrkind and lives in New York City. He has huge stashes of treasure, some buried under the NY subways. One of his enemies is the Dark Fae King Urien who lives in Chicago. Dragos has a truce with the Elves in the southern U.S.

Pia's mother was Wyr, her father human. Pia has an ability with locks. She touches locks and they open. After her mother died, she found comfort in boyfriend Keith and told him about her ability. Keith bragged about this to the wrong people. To settle his gambling debts he was given a "finding charm" and was told to use Pia to steal something from Dragos. He then blackmailed Pia into doing it, telling her he would give away her secrets if she didn't. So Pia used the charm and was able to get through Dragos' locks. She stole one penny from his stash. She then purchased a binding spell to stop Keith from ever talking about her again. Then she went on the run, fearing for her life.

After Dragos discovered the theft his roar frightened the city, and he destroyed millions of dollars in property with his temper tantrum. He became obsessed with finding the thief.

REVIEWER'S OPINION:
I think this is the first dragon romance book that I've liked. The main draw is the character Dragos. He is obsessed with Pia. He wants her and only her. He doesn't know how to treat someone he loves. She has to tell him to say please. At times his ownership, jealousy, and protectiveness overwhelm him, and she calms him down. There is a cute scene on pages 75-76 about her calming him down so he won't suffer further damage from an enemy. It was unexpectedly fun because she was his prisoner at the time. I enjoyed watching their relationship. The sex scenes were good. He was a softie - wanting her pleasure. He washed her hair, found special food for her, and gave her a credit card (which she didn't want).

The first half of the book was the best. The last half was ok but was a little bit of a letdown. Things weren't as exciting or special. But I liked it enough to order the sequel "Storm's Heart" coming August 2011 about Tricks (Fae) and Tiago (Wyr). "Dragon Bound" is the first in the Elder Races series.

A minor negative was Pia doing something stupid which allowed the bad guy to get her. I would have preferred the bad guy being super smart instead of the heroine doing something stupid. But this wasn't as bad as a lot of others.

I noticed one reviewer did not like Dragos being an ancient guy "speaking in a modern fashion." I say this is FICTION. Nothing needs to be historically or factually accurate. (He can shapeshift for heaven's sake!) The important things are enjoying and being engaged which this does well.

DATA:
Story length: 312 pages. Swearing language: strong. Sexual language: strong. Number of sex scenes: 6. Estimated number of sex scene pages: 19. Setting: current day New York City, S. Carolina, and other areas along the east coast U.S. Copyright: 2011. Genre: paranormal romance.
4 people found this helpful
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Fair to Fine

I wouldn't herald this as the birth of the best new series, it was an ok book. i have read better. The concept is nice but it's so overdone and if you're goingto re-do it, doit better. it was Fair to fine with a few good scenes in between. Buy on bargain or borrow from a friend.
4 people found this helpful
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On Wyrs

I've seen practically nothing but rave reviews for Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison, so I'm sorry to say that I was a little underwhelmed. I didn't hate it, and certain parts of it were fantastic, but I have enough complaints that I'm going to have to label it as average.

The book opens with Pia, our heroine, escaping after stealing an item from Dragos' lair. This feat was supposed to have been impossible, but Pia has some hidden talents--and furthermore, she was threatened and blackmailed into the act. Dragos is beyond pissed at the insult of being robbed, and pursues Pia as she flees into the territory of his enemies. To say more would give too much away, so I'll just say that with Dragos being the leader of the Wyrs (shapeshifters, I guess), he has some pretty nasty enemies.

I'm going to start with the world building, because the concept of a book containing dragons, elves, and fairies as main characters is what drew me to this book in the first place. Books with such a variety of supernatural creatures and concepts often suffer from info dump and exposition overload. Thankfully, this one wasn't too bad--the author keeps it simple. I actually wished for a little more information at certain times--some clarification on the distinctions between fae and elf and so on, for example. But overall, the world building is pretty solid.

That said, there isn't anything spectacularly innovative going on in this book. It follows a lot of the traditional patterns you'll see in paranormal romance, and uses many familiar tropes. If you swapped out the dragon and other mythological creatures for vampires and werewolves, every reviewer would be calling this a boring cliched flop. And the thing is, you really could make that swap without damaging the plot too much.

Let's take Dragos as an example. Initially I was impressed by the fact that he acted so much like the mythological dragon I hoped for. He's acquisitive and possessive, violent and uncivilized, a leader but a loner, and of course ancient and immortal. But other than the actual turning into a dragon, the above traits are ones I'm used to seeing in the vamps and werewolf alphas of other books. He just isn't unique in my mind. He's a nifty concept, but his personality is underdeveloped and unoriginal. As a result, I never fully connected with him.

Then there's Pia. I liked Pia, because she seemed to act, and react to events, much the way I would expect a rational person to. She isn't too perfect, she has plenty of moments where she freaks out. She makes some bad decisions, but still demonstrates competence. Throughout most of the book, it's a mystery as to what Pia actually is. The payoff is not disappointing.

The timeline of the book spans a little over a week. That's a pretty short time for two people to fall in love and commit to one another. That leads me into my biggest issue with this book. I'm just going to say it, SPOILER though it is...this is a fated mate book. The relationship is destined to be, no point fighting it, don't know if they could live without one another, etc. The mate bond (in this book) is pretty much entirely used as a substitute for a real emotional connection, a contrived way of putting two people together who would probably not commit to one another otherwise. The sex scenes were sensual and intense, so I believed that Pia and Dragos have the hots for one another. And yes, I guess I believe they're bonded as mates because the book tells me so. But I'm not satisfied that they feel real, absolute love. I'm not even satisfied that they know each other very well. This book felt like the prelude to a real love story, not the love story itself.

Overall, I'm not hugely disappointed in this book. I would probably read the next book in the series if I came across it. I just feel pretty neutral toward this one. 2.5 stars.
3 people found this helpful
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Unbelievably Fabulous

I read this book through the night, finished it, started it over again, finished it again last night, and started on my 3rd re-read this morning.
I have never done this before in my entire life.
I love this story. I adore the characters, the suspense, the love and caring between all of the people involved, and the sex is beyond hot. This is a story *not* to be *missed*

Buy, Beg, Borrow or Steal It, but get it, this is a story to cherish and I will *never* loan this book to anyone.
**I purchased this book due to the reviews here, and I sincerely thank all of you ladies and gents for taking the time to share your thoughts about this book so that I did not miss out on this treasure.**

Update:

It's now been several months since I wrote this review, and I have reread this story perhaps 6 or more times since then.
I have enjoyed this story more than any other book that I can remember.
I'm purchasing another few copies so that I can always find a copy when Dragon Bound *calls* to me again..I just love the times that story has called me to come back to it again...(as long as hubby does not find out all will be well! Wink BG)
3 people found this helpful
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Fun book but hardly anything new

Pia Giovanni has a special talent. It is one that she shared with her loser (now) ex-boyfriend in a moment of weakness that he chose to exploit. Because of it she is blackmailed into stealing something from a very powerful being.

That theft sets off a chain of events that brings Pia to the attention of a lot of other-worldly beings, much to her dismay. Being a halfling (half human, half wyr) is a dicey proposition in Pia's world. All of her life her mother had impressed upon her the absolute necessity of keeping her head down, making no attachments, and learning how to pick up and run at the drop of a hat. Pia had forgotten all of this until it was too late.

Dragos is a Dragon Wyr. When Pia steals from his hoarde, his anger is felt all over Manhattan. But when he finally finds her, instead of killing her he instead decides to keep her for himself.

I was very excited to read this because it had gotten a couple write-ups in review blogs that made it sound like it had a very new, fresh take on PNR. I tend to get a little weary of the sub-genre because it feels sometimes like it is just very...done. A few authors have created such complete, immersive worlds that they are still my go-tos (Nalini Singh,Ilona Andrews,Patricia Briggs). But by and large I tend to shy away from new entries into the field unless they are bringing something new to the table.

That didn't happen here. Don't get me wrong...this was a fun and quick read with lots of snappy dialogue and witty characters. but in the end of the day there really wasn't much that felt new.

Dragos is the head of the Wyr -- which is basically another way of saying shapeshifters. He has created a corporation that on one level works as a multi-national business that employs the various Wyrfolk and builds his immense wealth and on another level works as a feudal system where he is the undisputed king and the rest of the wyrfolk tend to be his minions. It is also a collective because they are in opposition to the Dark Fae and the Elves.

So there is some world building there that sets the scene, but again it didn't wow we over with something that felt really different.

What was really cool was the type of shifter that Pia was. I thought that was great and explained a lot why her mother had drummed all the stuff into Pia's head. All the mythology surrounding Pia herself was well done.

Dragos, otoh, was a run of the mill Alpha Dragon male shifter who meets the One Woman who matters after millenia of living and not having anyone to love. All the aggression with mating, possessiveness, protectiveness etc. etc. is all there. Again not a bad thing, but fairly typical.

Normally this might have even been a 4-star read for me because like I said it was fun and I do like PNR that falls on the lighter side of things because so many are so angsty. But there were a few things that bugged.

Firstly, I tend to dislike the idea of a long lived creature like Dragos having lived milennia and having had not a single meaningful relationship with a female until Pia. Especially since it seems he's absolute magic in the sack! I know it is fantasy and it is romance but that always seems implausible to me.

Secondly, I just had to roll my eyes with how quickly and easily she was accepted as part of his inner sanctum. He has these guards called Sentinels who watch his back and have been with him for centuries. They are stone cold bad-asses! Within, like, 3 days, Pia has won them over completely. They thawed out when she rejected Dragos' Black American Express card. See? She's good people! Not a gold-digger. She must be ok! I could sort of accept it because like I said the story is on the lighter side, but it just yanks a few of my 'gimme a break' chains.

Thirdly, Pia has a stupid heroine moment which I saw a coming from a mile away because she had to do something to get her kidnapped by the bad guy. The minute the scene started I knew exactly where it was gonna go. And it did.

and Finally, the main villain was kinda lame. Ok very lame. In the end it pretty anti-climactic.

So yeah, not a 5-star read for me. Not even close. But still fun enough hat I will most likely read any follow up books.
3 people found this helpful

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